Rome, April 17 – The time for talk about the restoration of the Colosseum is over, Rome’ s mayor said Wednesday. “The time for appeals has expired,” Gianni Alemanno said one day after consumer group Codacons turned once again to Italy’ s top administrative court to try to block privately-sponsored restoration works on the world-famous monument. “I really hope that in May, they open the (construction) sites and we don’ t have to talk about it anymore,” added Alemanno, who has been a strong supporter of shoe giant Tod’ s funding the 25-million-euro restoration project. And the mayor warned that further delays would mean complications for work adjacent to the Colosseum on a new branch of Rome’ s underground metro. Restoration work on one of Rome’ s most important historical landmarks is set to begin on May 20. Still, the fight isn’ t likely over. Codacons has been fighting hard against the sponsorship agreement with Tod’ s, owned by Diego Della Valle. The consumer group has a long-running legal complaint that the bidding process on the project lacked transparency and yielded too many concessions to Della Valle. This week, the consumer group asked the court to provide previously deposited acts on sponsorship rights for verification. Codacons has also asked that the exclusive sponsorship contract be cancelled and new legal proceedings be opened, claiming that advertising rights were increased 10-fold over the original agreement. The regional administrative court ruled against Codacons’ complaint last summer, but Codacons filed an appeal, which was also overturned in February.

Sezioni:
• Rassegna Stampa

Aree Tematiche:
• VARIE

Tags: colosseo